silver mounted file knife

[motan]

Hi,
I missed this one and arrived when the verdict is already out.
Just a small detail to add. Notice that the shafra in Egerton's illustration has a very different decoration - more like those of Artzi's examples and Kubur's second example. So this reference was not very valid to begin with.

Further, the use of old metal files, probably European in origin, is very common in Middle Eastern daggers. If it really had to cut, this was often the toughest and best quality steel available.

Lastly, I have written in my post to the "Old Khyber" thread that it is often problematic to rely on 19th c authors because the notion that knowledge should be based on facts was not yet universal. Reasoning and authoritative opinions were often preferred. That is how the Shafra and the Yatagan came to be Nepalese weapons: single-edge+forward curve=Kukri or something from Nepal. Mistakes happen, but the problem is that they were presented with authority, copied without checking by later authors and still torment us today.